The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Digitalis plant, botanically known as (Digitalis lanata×grandiflora)×(Digitalis laevigata), and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Spice Island’.
The new Digitalis is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Stroud, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The objective of the breeding program was to create sturdy new Digitalis cultivers with numerous flowers with attractive coloration.
The new Digitalis originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 1995 of the Digitalis lanata×Digitalis grandiflora cultivar John Innes Tetra, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed selection of Digitalis laevigata, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Digitalis was discovered and selected by the Inventor in August, 1998 as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Stroud, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by tissue culture since 1999 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom has shown that the unique features of this new Digitalis are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.